Towards Amalgamationist Governance: Governor Hutt and Contradictions in British Colonial Policy Regarding Aboriginal People in Western Australia

The early development and nature of British colonial government policy regarding the protection and governance of Aboriginal people in Western Australia was influenced by two British parliamentary committee reports in the late 1830s. This article contributes to scholarship by drawing a connection between theLands Committee and the Aborigines Committee and their influence on the nature of policy relating to Aboriginal people. It examines the extent to which the implementation of colonial Governor John Hutt’s protective and amalgamationist governance over Aboriginal people was influenced by the two reports. Contributing to new knowledge, it argues that the assumption made in relation to Australia by both committees, and the Colonial Office by 1837 —that a portion of the sale of Indigenous lands was to fund measures to protect Aboriginal people —raised contradictions in policy and practice. The appointment of Protectors and any reserves was expected to come from the continuing sale of land, with the inevitable result that Aboriginal people would continue to bear the cost of more rapid dispossession from their lands.